"Oh, how sorry they will be to have missed you! But they went last night!"
"But were not you, Miss Chase, to accompany them?" he demanded; and she handed him the girls' note, saying, demurely:
"That explains everything."
Lovelace Ellsworth read it with a somewhat malicious smile, exclaiming:
"How fortunate that I came in time to protect you on your journey!"
Mrs. Chase hastened to say:
"We shall indeed be grateful for your escort, as Dainty was about to give up her trip through her timidity at venturing alone. Now, as soon as we have breakfast, she will be ready."
Oh, how angry Olive and Ela would have been to see that pleasant little party at breakfast, and afterward setting forth for the station in Ellsworth's carriage, Mrs. Chase accompanying to see her daughter off, and both of them perfectly delighted with their genial new acquaintance, of whom the mother could not help thinking:
"How admiringly he looks at my bonny girl, as if indeed Olive and Ela were right in fearing her rivalry for his heart! And how good and true he looks, as if he might make any girl a kind, loving husband! What a grand thing it would be for Dainty—"
She broke off the thought abruptly, for the parting was at hand, and her daughter clung tearfully about her neck.